I am trying to resolve a note but am not sure if this is an official street name sign or is it indicating something else? I have seen a couple of these now. Can someone let me know what these signs are for? This one is located at 48.757361, -92.604199.
Are these signs always located at intersections? I’m unfamiliar with the local signage, but I think that would be a plausible sign for a Gingrich Road. Street name signs tend to vary in design quite a bit. In rural areas, they tend to be relatively minimalistic.
There may be someone in the Canadian community (Canada - OpenStreetMap Community Forum) who knows better than I, but I think that’s just the name of the family that lives there.
Often in rural Canada roads are signposted further up the crossroad rather than right at the intersection (the premise being a driver going 80-100 km/h might not be able to read a sign at the intersection quickly enough before whizzing past their intended turn), and almost always have white lettering on a green or blue background. I suspect that that “Gingrich Road” name was added with the best of intentions by the user krnchygravl on the presumption that this sign was indicating the road’s name.
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Can you provide more examples?
Thanks for the input. One thing I have noticed is the signs in my example do not have a regular, upcoming street sign like this one in Bing streetside.
The trouble is, I can’t find many. If I saw them everywhere, I’d assume they are official road names. Right now I wonder if it could be a family name of the people on the road? Here are some more examples on Bing streetside.
Yeah, that white sign with black lettering is just the name of the family who live there, i.e. “the Martins” sign is denoting “this way to the Martin family farm”. It’s for wayfinding, but it’s not the name of the road; the road itself has no name, it’s just a driveway to their property.
The green signs with white lettering are road names, e.g. Factor Lake Road.
FYI 10 months ago I started a discussion about a semi-related issue, where another mapper was adding the names of landowners: Names of land owners The consensus was to not include them, even if publicly posted knowledge.
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In that case, the information was posted online in a database, but I suspect people could feel differently if the name was signposted, depending on how prominently. In my neighborhood, people sometimes put their family name on their mailbox or curbside garbage bin, but this isn’t really intended to be public information, just a helpful hint to keep the mail and garbage from getting mixed up, and maybe a cute status symbol among neighbors. You can get letter stickers for these signs at the stationery store for a few bucks. I don’t ever tag these names.
By contrast, the owner of a farm may post their name at the gate to mark their land and perhaps help customers find their farmstand on weekends. Or a resident with a long driveway may post a vanity street sign with a name of their choosing (e.g., “Holly’s Way”) that’s also useful for wayfinding. (I don’t know if that’s allowed in that part of Ontario.) I would be more inclined to tag owners’ names in these cases.
If these signs are common and consistent, it makes me wonder if the local authorities have a program in place to signpost household names. If so, maybe we can learn more about the privacy expectations around those signs from how the program was introduced. For example, was it just for convenience or also to facilitate emergency services? Do residents have a choice about whether these signs are posted and what they say on them?
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Thank you both for the input. This has been very helpful. Like you, I still have questions. Maybe if I get back up that way one day I can ask someone.
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True, hence why I said it was “semi-related”.
Good question. 